In Memoriam

In Memoriam

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Previously unreleased material from the UK doom legend's archives, consisting of studio tracks, and live tracks recordedin Holland in '91. Over 72 minutes of music. 1999 release. Standard jewel case.

Tracks:

Les Choristes
In Memoriam
L'Arrivee a L'Ecole
Pepinot
Vois sur ton Chemin
Les Partitions
Caresse sur L'Ocean
Lueur d'Ete
Cerf-Volant
Sous la Pluie
Compere Guilleri
La Desillusion
La Nuit
L'Incendie
L'Evocation
Les Avions en Papier
Action Reaction
Seuls
Morhange
In Memoriam A Cappella
Nous sommes de Fond de l'Etang

Amazon.com

Already a box office sensation with a million-selling soundtrack in its native France, writer/director Christopher Barratier's tale of a post-war music teacher's lasting impact on his young charges rode its formulaic Hollywood roots all the way to Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations as Best Foreign Language Film, as well as an Oscar nod for Best Song ("Look To Your Path [Vois Sur Ton Chemin]," a collaboration between the director and film composer Bruno Coulais). Taking his inspiration from the boy's chorus at the center of the film's drama, Coulais has concocted a masterful, classically rooted score that showcases the crystalline, youthful harmonies of Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc Choir. The composer bridges the baroque and modern eras in a collection of mostly Latin choruses and chants, a skillful, often haunting fusion that also netted Coulais' compelling score BAFTA and Cesar Awards in Britain and his native France, respectively. -- Jerry McCulley

Album Description

The Chorus (Les Choristes), written and directed by Christophe Barratier, is already a French cinema phenomenon. The modestly budgeted film about a music teacher in a post-war France who wins over the troubled students at a boarding school arrived in French theatres last summer with little advance hype. Defying industry expectations, this affecting tale proceeded to break box-office records. The soundtrack to The Chorus (Les Choristes) features performers by the Lyon-based Petits Chanteurs de Saint Marc and several haunting solo turns by 13 year-old boy soprano Jean-Baptiste Maunier, who also portrays the youthful protagonist of the film.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing children's voices.......2007-05-14

This CD has been in the player in my kitchen ever since it arrived and has been played many times, and no one in the family is tired of it. The children's voices are wonderful, the pieces are beautiful, the harmonies haunting. A longtime favourite for sure.

Great Music.......2007-05-11

The CD is so enjoyable. The music is beautiful. I can not say enough good about it. The orchestra and choir are outstanding. The move is also wonderful, French with subtitles. I heard the CD when I was visiting a friend in Germany. I ordered the CD and movie as soon as I arrived back in the States. Such beautiful melodies and performance quality of the highest standard.

THE CHORUS CD.......2007-05-07

Excellent CD! Good sound reproduction and excellent music. Makes you feel like you are watching the movie again! Angelic young voices singing beautiful French choral pieces. Beautiful and relaxing.

Great music, but missing some songs from the movie.......2007-02-25

I rented this movie last year, and really enjoyed it. However, when I bought the CD, I discovered it was missing my favorite song from the movie. However, the songs on the album are absolutely beautiful.

a wonder.......2007-01-19

this collection of music is one of the finest things which i have ever listened to. the movie is equally beautifull.

Average customer rating:

Charming
WONDERFUL!
Both uplifting and serious sacred music
Sound and Silence
Mr. Goodall is a National Treasure

Goodall: Choral Works

Manufacturer: Asv Living Era
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Vicar of Dibley - 10th Anniversary Specials
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Howard Goodall's Big Bangs
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ASIN: B0000063CX
Release Date: 1998-04-21

Tracks:

Missa Aedis Christi: Kyrie
Missa Aedis Christi: Gloria
Missa Aedis Christi: Credo
Missa Aedis Christi: Sanctus
Missa Aedis Christi: Benedictus
Missa Aedis Christi: Agnus Dei
In Memoriam Anne Frank
The Vicar Of Dibley: Psalm 23
Mr. Bean: Ecce Homo
They Were Not Here
Marlborough Canticles: Magnificat
Marlborough Canticles: Nunc Dimittis

Customer Reviews:

Charming.......2003-10-01

I was surprised to find this CD charming. Psalm 23 caught my attention at first, probing me to listen further. If you like the music of John Rutter, try to get your hands on this CD. It will be well worth it. Mr Bean even features on the disc. The sound is fresh and crisp. The music is clever and very interesting. Try it out.

WONDERFUL!.......2002-09-20

Perhaps the finest British Composer writing for a variety of media today. I would encourage folks to LOVE this CD. It is accessible to almost all, from Snotty Anglicans(Of which I am a classic case) to low church Protestants. I think that the essence of each of these pieces is universal. As to the comment about the varying volumes.....get real! Dynamic Contrast is a PLUS!

If you wish to acquire the sheet music to these pieces you will have difficulty in finding a US distributor. American Music Company in Missouri(Liberty,MO) was able to get me the pieces for my choir in a very timely fashion.

Both uplifting and serious sacred music.......2000-08-09

This is excellent music for Anglican liturgy with an extra measure of joyful rhythm and delicious harmony. It's holy music that smiles. A good contemporary addition to any library of cathedral music. And the liner notes helped me finally figure out the funny lyrics to the theme from Mr. Bean.

Sound and Silence.......2000-08-06

This truly lovely music is harmed by recording production values. The dynamic range goes from the inaudible to the earsplitting so that one is constantly reeling from the assault to ears. The composer actually comments gleefully in the accompanying notes on the choir's joy at singing at full (plus) volume. The music is wonderful, the sound is not. I would welcome another shot at this music featuring more restraint from the sound engineers, more discipline applied to an excellent, but overly eager, composer.

Mr. Goodall is a National Treasure.......1999-12-28

I sent my church's organ player on a wild goose-chase searching for the theme to the Vicar of Dibley (Psalm 23). I'm embarrassed and delighted to admit that the composer is NOT some eighteenth-century chormaster but the UK's very own and very much alive Harold Goodall! A more lilting and elegiac tune would be hard to find. His melodies lend themselves perfectly to choral arrangement.

Average customer rating:

Report from the far reaches of the musical envelope.
Not great music, but fun
share Ligeti's fascination with mechanical things.
Better than it had any right to be
listen to with open ears

Ligeti: Mechanical Music
Gyorgy Ligeti , Pierre Charial , Jürgen Hocker , and Françoise Terrioux
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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György Ligeti Edition 6: Keyboard Works (Piano, Harpsichord, Organ) - Irina Kataeva / Pierre-Laurent Aimard / Elisabeth Chojnacka / Zsigmond Szathmáry
György Ligeti Edition 4: Vocal Works (Madrigals, Mysteries, Aventures, Songs) - The King's Singers / Philharmonia Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen
György Ligeti Edition 1: String Quartets and Duets - Arditti String Quartet
György Ligeti Edition 2: A Cappella Choral Works - London Sinfonietta Voices
György Ligeti Edition 3: Works for Piano (Etudes, Musica Ricercata) - Pierre-Laurent Aimard

ASIN: B0000029P2
Release Date: 1997-05-20

Tracks:

Adaptations For Barrel Organ: Continuum
Adaptations For Barrel Organ: Hungarian Rock
Adaptations For Barrel Organ: Capriccio No. 1
Adaptations For Barrel Organ: Invention
Adaptations For Barrel Organ: Copriccio No. 2
Poeme Symphonique for 100 Metronomes
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: I. Sostenuuto - Misurato - Prestissimo
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: II. Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: III. Allegro con spirito
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: IV. Temp de Valse (poco vivace - (a l'orgue de barbarie))
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: V. Rubato. Lementoso
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: VI. Allegro molto capriccioso
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: VII. Cantabile, molto legato
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: VIII. Vivace. Energico
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: IX. (Bela Bartok in memoriam) Adagio. Mesto - Allegro maestoso
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: X. Vivace. Capriccioso
Adaptation For Barrel Organ: IX. (Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi) Andante misurato e tranquillo
Adaptations For Player Piano: X. Der Zauberlehrling
Adaptations For Player Piano: IX. Vertige
Adaptations For Player Piano: XI. En suspens
Adaptations For Player Piano: XIII, L'escalier du diable
Adaptations For Player Piano: XIVa. Coloana fara sfarsit
Adaptations For Player Piano: VII. Galamb borong - Adapted For 2 Player Pianos
Adaptations For Player Piano: Continuum - Adapted For 2 Player pianos

Amazon.com essential recording

Although Gyorgy Ligeti is best known for his eerie, tonally ambiguous choral and orchestral writing (immortalized in 2001: A Space Odyssey), this collection of works for musical automata--player piano, barrel organ, and metronomes--includes some of his most astonishing music. The player piano pieces are an exhilarating, intensely physical roller-coaster ride through superhuman tempi and dynamic extremes--an intriguing marriage of artifice and human invention. While clearly indebted to the influence of Nancarrow, Ligeti's player piano works are more approachable than Nancarrow's rigorous etudes, revealing the sense of humor that distinguishes Ligeti from his more ponderous contemporaries. Likewise, the controversial prank piece Metronomes foreshadows the phasing experiments of Reich with its intricate cross-rhythms created by metronomes marking time simultaneously at different speeds. Perhaps most fascinating of all are Ligeti's compositions for computer-modified barrel organ--a hand-cranked, calliope-like instrument popular with itinerant musicians in the 1700s. --Dennis Rea

Customer Reviews:

Report from the far reaches of the musical envelope........2006-08-29

This recording of Gyorgy Ligeti's 'Mechanical Music' gets five stars from me only because I happen to like this sort of thing, and 'good' music of this type which pushes the envelope in one direction or another is hard to come by. My immediate reaction to it is the amount of similarity I hear in some of the works to those of Frank Zappa's more serious instrumentals, especially to his 'signature' tune, 'Peaches En Regalia'. If I didn't know Sir Frank was heavily influenced by Edgar Varese, I would have started looking for Hungarian skeletens in the Zappa closet.

I will say that if you are not a nut on having the 'complete' set of things, this CD is less interesting than Ligeti's vocal works, but just a bit more interesting than his conventional instrumental works.

Not great music, but fun.......2006-02-16

Of Marcel Duchamp's powerful "Nude Descending a Staircase," an unfriendly (but perceptive) critic said a better title would have been "Explosion in a Shingle Factory." I'd suggest that Ligeti's Poeme Symphonique for 200 Metronomes might more descriptively be titled "Tone Poem: Waiting Out a Twenty-Minute Hailstorm in a Tin Shack."

That said, the album is fun. Some of the barrel organ works have a whimsicality that's appropriate for this instrument (which sometimes produces a sound that I can only describe as watery). It's interesting to hear Ligeti's already-strange Musica Ricercata pieces scored for barrel organ. No one of these pieces, however, carries a lot of emotional power.

share Ligeti's fascination with mechanical things........2004-01-30

First off, I should inform you that Sony's Ligeti Edition series is being deleted so if you're interested in this stuff, you should pick up the ones you want as soon as you can. Ligeti Edition 5 is a good one. No, it's AWESOME. If you have any interest in "mechanical music," this should be essential.

Poeme Symphonique for 100 Metronomes was the main thing I wanted to hear on this collection. The piece starts with 100 metronomes ticking in a dense, ordered mass of monotone ticks. As the piece progresses, as some of the metronomes finish winding down, distinct rhythmic arrangements begin to emerge, swaying and wavy and disorienting. (You can also play a good trick on someone: play this piece in their car and they'll think the vehicle is about to explode or something.) Finally, one metronome is left ticking alone, then silence. The concept seemed utterly fascinating so I knew it was something I had to check out. Fortunately, it is more than just an idea that sounds good on paper - it is a very enthralling piece of music. In the liner notes, Ligeti discusses the thermodynamic category of maximal entropy, which factored into his considerations in composing this piece. That's interesting, because in his work on "dissipative structures," Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine theorized that a given system might reach a "bifurcation point," at which its simpler processes can no longer provide for order. At this point, Prigogine tells us, the system can either go into a total, entropic collapse, or evolve into a higher form of order. The second law of thermodynamics (on which our understanding of entropy is based) may not be as relevant as Prigogine's insights. Rather than coming to maximal entropy upon the finale of the single metronome, we can think of it as a new beginning. It's kind of inspirational in its own weird little way. To get the most out of it, play it on your finest stereo equipment at massive volumes and drown in the sound (gotta emulate the live performance anyway you can).

Another highlight of this collection as Ligeti's piano Etudes adapted for player piano. In standard form, the Etudes demand reams of virtuosity. Here, they are rearranged for player piano where there are no limits imposed by the performer - even the godlike Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Fredrik Ullen are still MEN, and thus have man's limitations. Needless to say, these adaptations are stunning and astonishingly fast, from the head-spinning runs of L'escalier du diable to the astonishing gamelan texture of Galamb borong (for two player pianos). Also of interest is Continuum, adapted for two player pianos. It takes the blurry prestissimo to unreal speeds (it cannot actually be played fast enough on standard piano - the original was written for harpsichord).

The barrel organ pieces are very amusing adaptations of early Ligeti with shadows of Bartok, and they are full of the original pieces' rhythmic ingenuity and vigor, but with flawless mechanical precision and tone control. I think a big reason for my enjoying them is their quirky sound. As for Musica ricercata, personally I'd rather listen to Aimard's piano version (on Ligeti Edition 3), but the barrel organ adaptation is a pretty interesting spin on the piece, with an arrangement that gives it a very different flavor. The barrel organ also makes them sound kinda proggy, hehe.

Get it. Remember, this stuff's going out of print, and Ligeti is so good you don't want to miss your opportunity to have his music!

Better than it had any right to be.......2003-11-26

I stalled for a long time on buying this disc because the general premise didn't seem attractive. 40 minutes of arrangements for barrel organ (mainly of early Ligeti), 15 of arrangements for player piano and a 20-minute piece for 100 metronomes just didn't seem much like fun. In part I was right, but there are also some surprising successes in store for the listener.

Continuum and Hungarian Rock are both harpsichord pieces: one a frenetic pattern-illusion toccata, the other a piece of faux-naif postmodern pastiche. Both come off very well in barrel organ transcription--it's so much easier to hear details that tend to get lost in live performance. Three early piano pieces follow in barrel organ transcriptions: the Capriccio #1 and Invention are not greatly interesting, but Pierre Charial's barrel organ version of the second Capriccio finds depths--and premonitions of later Ligeti--in it that have so far been missed by live interpreters.

The Poeme Symphonique might well be Ligeti's most controversial piece, and it's a comparatively rare venture into Dadaism. Essentially, all the performance involves is queuing up 100 metronomes at different speeds and waiting for them to run down. It's actually more musically interesting than one would expect--patterns emerge from a blur before the rhythms become more and more regular at the end--but it's unlikely to be a piece the listener is likely to return to. (In truth, it works much better live, treated as an installation.)

The barrel organ transcription of Musica ricercata for piano doesn't add very much to the original. One or two pieces--particularly the seventh--do benefit from having new light drawn on them, but in general I'd rather hear a pianist play it (particularly Aimard in his excellent performances on volume 3 of this edition).

The disc ends with player piano transcriptions. Der Zauberlehring, Vertige, En suspens and L'escalier du diable all appear much faster here than on recordings with human pianists. L'escalier, in particular, gives a tremendous sheer visceral thrill, though I miss the expressiveness of a live pianist. Coloana fara sfarasit is actually intended for a player piano, as Ligeti found it was too hard for a real pianist to play. It's a splendidly exhilarating ride, and I hope one day a super-virtuoso will be found who can play it on the piano. The two transcriptions for two antiphonally divided player pianos are not so interesting: Galamb borong gains little from the arrangement, while the version of Continuum that closes the disc isn't nearly as fun as the one that opens it.

I enjoyed this disc, though it's not one I return to very often. If you like the concept, I would recommend this recording--though buy it sooner rather than later as Sony's website no longer lists this disc as in print.

listen to with open ears.......2003-06-04

This cd is very interesting to listen to. Wow the barrel organ is a little different but it adds another view to Ligeti's music. Now for Poeme Symphonique for 100 metronomes, i didn't know how i would go with this piece. First time was like wow different but the second time started to hear something very personal.Music is what you make it

William Grant Still: Afro-American Symphony; In Memoriam; Africa (Symphonic Poem)

Average customer rating:

Great Music
The Very American Music of William Grant Still
Long Lost Symphony
Amazing!
Dynamic Orchestra

William Grant Still: Afro-American Symphony; In Memoriam; Africa (Symphonic Poem)

Manufacturer: Naxos American
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Works By William Grant Still
Amy Beach: "Gaelic" Symphony; Piano Concerto
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ASIN: B0007ORDYU
Release Date: 2005-03-22

Tracks:

In Memoriam
Land Of Peace
Land Of Romance
Land Of Superstition
Moderato Assai
Adagio
Animato
Lento, Con Risoluzione

Customer Reviews:

Great Music.......2007-05-13

This is a great CD that's not only extremely affordable but is also extremely enjoyable. The music of William Grant Still stands out as some of the finest music composed by American composers of the 20th century. In Memorium is particularly poignant. The rest of the CD is great too.

The Very American Music of William Grant Still.......2005-08-05

To tell the truth, I wanted to start this review by saying that William Grant Still is one of those one-work wonders of a composer of which the opera world has so many examples (Leoncavallo, Giordano, etc., etc.). But then I listened a few times more to "Africa," given its premiere recording here. Its melodies and musical gestures may be less striking than those in Still's one big work, the Afro-American Symphony, also included on this disc. On the other hand, "Africa" has some very compelling music, too, and is colorfully orchestrated in Still's signature manner. Just listen to the soft solo for timpani at the start: this sets the mood immediately for the first movement, entitled "Land of Peace." It is indeed peaceful music but with some added spice to keep the listener on his or her toes. The last movement, "Land of Superstition," seems to me rather bland given its title, but overall, this music is an attractive travelogue in the manner of Virgil Thomson's film scores from the 1930s, anticipating them in fact by several years. Along with Thomson, Still can probably be credited with pioneering the use of pop-musical influences to effectively create local color.

That truth is even more evident in the Afro-American Symphony. You have to sit up and take notice when a symphony begins with a blues refrain that's quickly answered by a quirky little jazz riff in the winds. It's like a little scene from a musical of the 1930s: chase your blues away, says that little jazz riff. But then you realize this is a genuine symphonic first movement in well-argued sonata form, and you've got to be impressed.

The notes to this recording point out that the bouncy third movement (with banjo obbligato, first time in a symphony certainly!) has a main theme very similar to George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm." Actually, Still came up with his melody before Gershwin wrote his song, but Still and Gershwin supposedly influenced one another, so maybe Gershwin cribbed a bit from Still. Hearing the very dramatic episodes in the first and last movements that seem to forecast scenes in "Porgy and Bess," I wonder if Still didn't influence Gershwin much more than the reverse.

Be that as it may, I find, as with "Africa," that the symphony is let down a bit by the finale, though it does end with an appropriately dramatic peroration, leaving a bold impression. All things considered, this is one of the best symphonies written by an American and certainly one of the most American of all.

I have nothing but praise for the performances. The Fort Smith Symphony takes this music to heart and presents it with great feeling and with the kind of abandon that comes when musicians have lived with music for a while and have gotten it into their blood. Sure, this is a regional orchestra instead of one of America's Big Five, but if so, these excellent performances just speak to the general quality of American orchestras even out in the hinterlands. Conductor John Jeter probably deserves a good deal of credit as well. And while I'm at it, kudos to the Naxos engineers too. The recording has fine presence and detail. Given Naxos' price, this disc is the way to go if you want to acquire William Grant Still's classic.

Long Lost Symphony.......2005-07-28

It's one of the tragedies of the 20th century that Still's Symphonic Suite AFRICA has never been recorded in its symphonic version before. Two versions for piano don't begin to give an idea of its rich color and expressiveness. In spite of the no-name orchestra (so to speak) this is a good recording of a truly beautiful work. I don't think Still ever composed anything better. The opening track, IN MEMORIAM, is also a novelty. Sit back and enjoy!
Catherine Parsons Smith (author of WILLIAM GRANT STILL: A STUDY IN CONTRADICTIONS)

Amazing!.......2005-04-21

This is a great CD of the world premiere recording of the remarkable American classical music composer, William Grant Still. Performed by the Fort Smith Symphony, under the direction of John Jeter, it is beautiful and inspiring. The viola section plays exceptionally well.

Dynamic Orchestra.......2005-04-10

The Fort Smith Symphony under the direction of John Jeter is a dynamic orchestra. This CD is an excellent example of the talents of the musicians synchronized by their director's many worldwide experiences conducting symphonies. Fort Smith is a moderate sized community located in the heartland of the U.S. The community and the region are fortunate to have such dedicated talent in their local culture. I hope to see future CD recordings of this caliber from the Fort Smith Symphony.

Pierre Boulez: Rituel / Eclat / Multiples - Ensemble InterContemporain / BBC Symphony Orchestra

Average customer rating:

Three pieces which introduce Boulez's recent blend of glittering colours and ingeniously-paced action
among the best of Boulez
Love it or hate it, the world needs stuff like this....
wonderful pieces, best perfomances
These pieces are very colourful with a bright instrumentatio

Pierre Boulez: Rituel / Eclat / Multiples - Ensemble InterContemporain / BBC Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez , Ensemble InterContemporain , and BBC Symphony Orchestra
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Percussion | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music

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Boulez: Sur Incises/Messagesquisse/Anthèms 2
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Boulez conducts Boulez

ASIN: B000002703
Release Date: 1991-01-14

Tracks:

Rituel in Memoriam Maderna
Eclat
Multiples

Customer Reviews:

Three pieces which introduce Boulez's recent blend of glittering colours and ingeniously-paced action.......2006-08-07

This Sony disc contains three pieces by Pierre Boulez with the composer himself conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. I think that the products of Boulez's middle period, following the Piano Sonata No. 3, are generally disappointing, showing a certain lack of focus. The pieces here, however, represent a coming back to life that was to lead to his great masterpieces of the 80s and 90s.

"Eclat" for 15 instruments (1965) continues Boulez's interest in aleatoric form. In this work consisting of a succession of elegant little motifs, the pitches, tempo, and dynamics are all predetermined, but the conductor can, on the spur of the moment, decide which motif he wants to signal next. The small ensemble is divided into two halves, those instruments whose sound dies away immediately unless trilled, and those instruments capable of sustaining there sound. In the interaction between these two groups, Boulez creates a web of beautiful colours. "Multiples", meant to always follow "Eclats" to form a single piece "Eclat/Multiples", was begun in 1971 and is still unfinished. It is an expansion of the ideas of the first piece, lasting twice as long and with the added instrumentation of nine violas, a basset horn, and a second piano. It shows a much greater variety of rhythms, and much of the writing consists of tuttis against the isolated cells of "Eclat". This second half of the joint work is one of my favourite pieces by Boulez, captivating for every minute of its duration and revealing new secrets on every listen.

"Rituel" for orchestra in eight groups (1974/75) was written in memory of Bruno Maderna, a Darmstadt figure who is nearly forgotten now but who was a close friend and inspiration to many composers who came of age in the 1950s. With its solemn pace and sad, mournful tones, the piece serves as a strong antidote to that usual conservative accusation that serialism "can't communicate anything." This is Boulez's vastest work in terms of percussion, with a large amount of exotic drums, cymbals, bells, wood blocks, and so forth on the stage. Its fifteen sections consist of highly mobile even-numbered intonations, unconducted after Boulez signals their starting points, contrasted with strict conducted responses. Over the course of the work, we move from one orchestral group to another, exploring all of its timbres even though the melodic material is intentionally limited to create a feeling of sorrow.

I should mention that appreciation of everything here can be vastly expanded through outside references. Dominique Jameux's PIERRE BOULEZ (Harvard University Press, 1991) contains a fantastic dissection, specifying what's happening minute by minute in each piece. For "Eclat" specifically, there's a documentary by Frank Schaeffer recently put out on DVD in the Juxtapositions series that shows Ed Spaanjard preparing to conduct the piece with the Nieuw Ensemble, with helpful commentary by Boulez himself.

Nothing here has quite the same grand proprtions of such later pieces as "...explosante-fixe...", "Repons", or "Sur Incises" (though "Multiples" gets close), but they are generally entertaining and represent a vast improvement over the lack of focus in "Pli selon pli" or the Piano Sonata No. 3.

among the best of Boulez.......2005-08-26

This disc, with either two or three Boulez pieces depending on whether you count "Eclat" and "Multiples" or just "Eclat/Multiples," is one of the best of the select output by the French composer and conductor. One simple rule I have learned is to beware of longer works -- "Repons" at over 40 minutes loses energy and interest (see my review), and "Pli Selon Pli," which is 60 minutes long in the 1969 Sony recording (see my review) and 70 minutes in the latest DG version (see my review) needless to say tests the outer limits of endurance.

"Rituel in memoriam Maderna" (1974/5 -- 25' 19") sustains interest for its entire duration! The BBC Symphony Orchestra tackled this modern work in 1976 with the same enthusiasm they showed in their 1969 recording of "Pli Selon Pli." Opening with a keening oboe over a steady timpani rhythm, it is a static work which fascinates through its creative use of varied percussion and suspense. "Rituel" may be the most Messiaen-ic of all Boulez's compositions, a shifting progression of fifteen tableaus, gradually increasing the size of the orchestra to the midpoint, and then diminishing.

"Eclat" and "Multiples" are performed by Boulez's own Ensemble Intercontemporain. "Eclat" (1965 -- 9'41") opens with piano, and its 15 instruments are divided into two groups -- instruments capable of sustaining tones (flute English horn, trumpet, trombone & strings) as "sonorous background" for a group of soloists, all instruments whose sound dies away (piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, mandolin & guitar). The slightest familiarity with Boulez reveals that this is a very Boulezian choice of instrumentation, leading to a characteristically Boulezian timbre. I would recommend this brief crystalline work as an ideal introduction to the music of Pierre Boulez. "Multiples" (1966-1970 -- 17'02") is unfinished. We can only hope it remains that way, though the liner notes threaten that it is supposed to be doubled in length when completed. It takes the "Eclat" ensemble and adds nine violas and a basset horn. Louder and more exuberant, it becomes quite different in style and mood than the preceding "part," and variety is a virtue in any Boulez recording.

This disc, part of the fine Sony PIERRE BOULEZ series, can be recommended without reservation -- it makes a great bargain-price introduction to Boulez, and it is an essential addition to a Boulez collection already underway.

Love it or hate it, the world needs stuff like this...........2001-03-01

Rituel is Boulez at his most accesible. An obssesive thredony, rich with oriental resonances, and jazzy 'improvisatory' woodwind polyphony, it owes a great debt to his teacher, Messian. Magical soundscapes of midrange instruments on Eclat and Multiple. As it's one of Boulez's indeterminate pieces (musicial events can be triggered in different orders and dynamics by the conductor), this piece would be best heard live, but retains an expectant tension on the recording. Multiples follows Eclat with vigor and verve. A hint for the uninitiated; listen to a little Boulez at first, and clear your mind of any preconceptions about harmony. Sampling a little each time, one can grow accostomed to his unique sounds, and begin to appreciate the music on its own terms. Personally, I like to listen to Boulez to clear my palette after a heavy meal of Romantic music, but many may find him a little dry.... Ah, well, I like it. Superb performance from the Ensemble. Sound suitably brilliant and clear throughout.

wonderful pieces, best perfomances.......2000-03-20

Eclat is a peculiar sound world in which i'v experienced great beauty. the language of this work of art is pure, and the outcome is light and magical. Rituel is probably a masterpiece, and certainly this is the best recorded performance of it i'v ever heard, so do not purchase another cd but this one for Rituel. boulez conducts in this recording and does it so much better than anyone else in this case of his own works.

These pieces are very colourful with a bright instrumentatio.......1998-11-27

I've heard these pieces several times. I like Eclat very much. It is a bright piece. Rituel is also very good for its rithmic continuity with a sparkling instrumentation in wich I heard some remembrance of the use of orchestral colouration of Maderna. The performances are as you can expect from Boulez: Very clear and exact.

Debussy / Ravel / Stravinsky: String Quartets

Average customer rating:

I bought this CD for the Ravel.
exciting interpretations

Debussy / Ravel / Stravinsky: String Quartets
Claude Debussy , Maurice Ravel , Igor Stravinsky , and Alban Berg Quartet
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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Similar Items:

Beethoven - The Complete String Quartets / Alban Berg Quartet
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Schubert - String Quintet in C / Alban Berg Quartet · Schiff

ASIN: B00005AVMJ
Release Date: 2001-04-10

Tracks:

I: Anime Et Tres Decide
II: Assez Vif Et Bien Rythme
III: Andantino, Doucement Expressif
IV: Tres Modere - Tres Mouvenente
I: Allegro Moderato - Tres Doux
II: Assez Vif - Tres Rythme
III: Tres Lent
IV: Vif Et Agite
No.1
No.2
No.3
Concertino
Double Canon (Raoul Dufy In Memoriam)

Customer Reviews:

I bought this CD for the Ravel........2007-01-10

Before deciding to buy this version of the Ravel string quartet, I listened to the samples of tracks #5~8 for comparison against other CDs carrying the same string quartet. In particular, #6(II: Assez Vif - Tres Rythme) was much mellower, unlike the other interpretations which were rather rushed or harsh-sounding. In my opinion this version was done with better poise, and therefore more pleasant to the ear.

exciting interpretations.......2005-04-14

this is wonderfully exciting performances of these tried and tested pieces,actually the one and only Quartets of Debussy and Ravel,strings seem to scare away composers, the same is true of the modern concerto, there is seldom a second one,or none at all,even Stravinsky his string literature brilliant though it is, is marginal to his other more spectacular works, well the ballets are no comparison;
usually the Debussy and Ravel are paired together,and they couldn't be more conceptually far apart,written by really two creators of different temperments and intellectual interests. Debussy at the beginning of his creativity with still pathways to follow,and Ravel well orchestration was his lifeworld,or let us say mining the depths of timbre and reflection on timeless objects as the "melos",the Renaissance like gestures.
The usual emotive traps in this music is to sentimentalize moments,(too-much vibrato,or impassioned phrasings) over-romanticize then their classical,finely woven gestures,turning a mere quartet into some mirror of symphonic sound, or even a short,a trace of the nostalgic,the melancholic turns, transforms this music into odious sap oozzing down the front of a flower,no there must be a foot,a conceptual balance in both worlds,this is music inhabiting the transitions to the modern,yet traditional melodic content,reflection,time inhabiting a symbolic order is still the focus here for both aesthetics.There is no modernist manifestoes yet proclaimed( as with the Surrealists,that Ravel knew) There is exciting texture and colour and the Alban Berg Quartet here are fully aware of these dimensions new departures, this new language of discreet colours as the plucked pizz string as in Ravel's "Assez Vif" breathtaking resonace from a little plucked string, if you heard it alone it would have a short sound piercing yet never sustained unless your ear is right on the string. The Ravel has more treacherous places for "warmth" to reside as in the exposed dark brooding lines for the viola in the third movement of "Tres Lent, here we have simple chords to give the "screens" for melos to occur. The opening itself,"Allegro moderato, Tres Doux" cannot be too too tres "Doux" otherwise again the dignity of the music is lost, here this means at times, the quiet reflection, like gazing out at nature,intropsection; the metaphor is not exhausted, this is music that encourages one to contemplate the fine shapes,and lines ,the complexity of nature, here through the ruff excursis of timbre.
The Debussy Quartet is another matter again the tempi the gestures need to be right on and they are here,many times the powerful opening is too heavy which then trails off into nothing a shimmer of sul ponticello threadbare background materials,while the Violin continues the melos. So balance of sound and gesture is important, and as commonplace as this seems there are many quartets who simple abandon this and go away in hiding for the melodramatic. That has no place in this music.
The Stravinsky string music sounds indeed refreshing after the ponderous Ravel and Debussy,here again we think we've heard all there is of string texture, and timbre,Stravinsky's string music has an open directed sense about it almost always brutal in the strings treatments lots of downbows,and double stops(two tones simultaneously) he (well as a true modernist)prefered the rougher,strident folksy aspects of the strings,this helped to render new content to his own still "diatonic" timbres yet with balanced classic shapes with rhythm being the asymetrical component to subvert the motions forward,the spaces. The "Three Pieces" here are incredible,drifting into the higher registers, plucked mixed with bowed timbres almost continuously,the resonance is exciting,makes the ear listen and you always are aware of the three,four layers occuring.You may know the materials here from other places that I simply forgot,Stravinsky lifted his own music again lifted from somewheres else, twice removed actually, but he did it with a real sense of transforming improving the original,not unlike the use of assemblage,collage of Picasso, who used newspapers for backdrops to his paintings or shrds fragments from hotel registry,matchbooks,pipe tobacco;for Stravinsky he worked at his music similarly cutting out strips of manuscript of single lines to be assembled later,or stuck on the wall with a pin through it for contemplation;many of the original melody lifted was languishing someplace anyways, never to see the light of day.
The "Concertino" seems more gratuitous in its gestures, lots of "noises" going nowheres,yet still exciting to listen. Raoul Dufy was a Fauvist painter who died in 1953,Stravinsky captures the finely gentle light lyricism of his paintings and illustrations.Yet there is a somber sense here not abandoned for his lost. This Quartet does good work.Wonderfully balanced disk.

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Classic Hits for Kids

Manufacturer: Delta
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Fugues | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000A4T9AS
Release Date: 2005-08-02

Average customer rating:

Great music
sonorous
Fine interpretation of little heard music
BEAUTIFUL
Very satisfying.

Bruch: The Complete Symphonies

Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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Bruch: The Complete Violin Concertos
Bruch: Works for Clarinet & Viola
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Saint-Saëns: Les 5 Symphonies
Melartin: The Six SYMPHONIES

ASIN: B000007OTH
Release Date: 1998-06-09

Tracks:

1. Allegro Maestoso
2. Scherzo. Presto
3. Quasi Fantasia. Grave
4. Finale. Allegro Guerriero
1. Allegro Appassionato, Ma Un Poco Maestoso
2. Adagio Ma Non Troppo
3. Allegro Molto Tranquillo
Romanze In A Minor, Op. 42/A-Moll/En La Mineur

Tracks:

1. Andante Sostenuto - Allegro Molto Vivace - Adagio
2. Adagio. Adagio Ma Non Troppo
3. Scherzo. Vivace
4. Finale. Allegro Ma Non Troppo
Adagio Appassionato, Op. 57
In Memoriam, Op. 65: Adagio For Violin And Orchestra/Fur Violine Und Orchester/Pour Violon Et Orchestre
1. Allegro Appassionato
2. Adagio, Ma Non Troppo Lento

Customer Reviews:

Great music.......2007-07-20

I can't add much to the eloquent comments already posted, but Bruch's symphonies are sweet, relaxing, and surprisingly approachable. I would only wish he had written more.

sonorous.......2007-05-06

Max Bruch did not exhaust the possibilities for romantic, passionate violin performance in concerto. He merely came close.

That astonishing achievement earns this underrated late-Romantic composer a place in every listener's library, to say nothing of the Hall of Honor inhabited by 'classical' composers. Kurt Masur's baton leading the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the inspired violin of Salvatore Accardo in this 1998 Philips 'Duo' release of recordings made in 1978, 1979, 1984, and 1988 make this a CD well worth owning.

The title is anomalous, since the two discs contain not only Bruch's three symphonies, but also his Romanze in A Minor, Op. 42; Adagio appasionato, Op. 57; In Memoriam, Op. 65; and Konzertstück in F sharp minor, Op. 84. Yet nobody's complaining, for it is largely via these pieces that Bruch's mastery with strings shines so brilliantly.

The symphonies are another matter. Those not familiar with Bruch might well use the Brahms symphonies as a reference point, from which one can then move on to mark the significant differences between the two composers.

Bruch's symphonies are sonorous and profoundly moving, a kind of German varietal linked horizontally at some deep level to the tonal palate of an English composer like Vaughan Williams.

This is very fine music. Bruch's symphonies are not Brahms, either in shape or in quality. Yet they are 'Brahmsian', if one may coin an adjective to indicate a master's less gifted but honorable disciple.

It is while listening through the pieces for violin and orchestra that a reviewer wonders how he could have stumbled erect thus far through life without having known this splendid beauty. An album with *only* Bruch's symphonies would be a workhorse piece of the library with little threat of keeping one up late into the morning, listening. An album of Bruch's symphonies *and* these that feature Accardo's violin in front of an exceptionally well-led Gewandhausorchester Leipzig is another matter. Threatening, indeed.

Fine interpretation of little heard music.......2006-08-22

Max Bruch's symphonies are not well known, but will be of interest to those who love his music. They are workmanlike, beautiful essays, without quite reaching heights of greatness (although with Kurt Masur's superb conducting, one is inclined to have second thoughts at times). When the symphonies in this collection give way to works for violin and orchestra, it is easy to understand why Max Bruch is best remembered for this form. This album includes the heart-rending "In Memoriam" for violin and orchestra - one of Bruch's very finest achievements, even though it remains obscure.

BEAUTIFUL.......2005-09-27

It's only a slight reticence in the recorded tone that prevents me from giving the full 5 stars to this 2-disc set. In every other way it has a great deal going for it. Bruch is sadly and most unjustly neglected except for the first violin concerto, the Scottish Fantasia and Kol Nidrei in my own experience. His music is outstandingly beautiful and individual, not in my own opinion showing any undue influence from Mendelssohn much less from Schumann. To my ears these masters are no doubt part of the general romantic background that the next generation absorbed, but Bruch has a thoroughly personal style and sound of his own. If your German or French is up to it read the liner note in one of these languages rather than the English one, which is a very inferior effort from another hand. If you're stuck with English, forget Mr Fifield's gratuitous and unenlightening fixation with Mendelssohn and Schumann. Bruch's range of expression is not particularly wide, but his melodic line is stronger than Mendelssohn's, the construction of his works is more fluent than Schumann's, not to say a lot better orchestrated, and he does not sound in the least like either of them.

Bruch's three symphonies are not far behind his concertos in attractiveness, the third being perhaps the best. However one should `rate' him in some pantheon of 19th century composers, it seems to me only fair to say that they are more even in quality than those of his nearer contemporaries Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. The performances strike me as being in general excellent, with speeds well judged and the rich late-romantic idiom put over with understanding and affection. The Leipzig orchestra is not one to let us down in any way, and the solo spots must have been most gratifying to the section principals, particularly, I'd guess, to the clarinettist. The recordings of all the works comprising this set were done over the period 1977-88, except perhaps that of the A minor Romanze which for some reason we are not told. The recorded quality is not bad by any means, but I couldn't shake off the sense that the orchestral effect needs more `presence' and general lustre to it. Bruch's sound, not just in his orchestral compositions but in some chamber works that I also know and own in recordings, is highly and outstandingly beautiful and mellifluous, rich without being over-ripe. I would have liked it more `in my face', so to speak, and I found that this sense coloured my reaction to the pieces with solo violin. On another day I might have thought the solo instrument too close, but here I was glad of the impact of Accardo's intense and strong-toned playing, full of soul and heart, by way of contrast. These four shortish numbers are Bruch at his very best, and it was high time I got to know them and to have the opportunity to recommend them to anyone with ears to hear.

This is a lovely pair of discs, minor reservations notwithstanding. How music of this quality has managed to stay as unfamiliar as it seems to have done is not something I can offer a good explanation for. If you don't wish it to stay unfamiliar to you, the remedy is here to hand.

Very satisfying........2005-01-01

This interesting compilation features Bruch's three symphonies and several works for solo violin and orchestra, all played exceedingly well, especially considering the dates of the original recordings (back when the Iron Curtain was nearly rusted through). The Leipzig Gewandhausorchester has a richness of sound and an expressive quality that affirms its legendary reputation and Bruch's music is its perfect match.

Bruch's symphonies were written after Wagner and Liszt had established themselves at the forefront of European music. Taking Mendelssohn as his model (Mendelssohn had died years before), Bruch's music is, by comparison to his contemporary vanguard, conservative and seemingly reactionary. Yet this does not at all mean that his music is inexpressive or lacking in interest. Quite the contrary, this is the most beautiful Romantic symphonic writing between the deaths of Mendelssohn and Schumann and during the rise of Bruch's friend Brahms. Each of these symphonies exerts its own character, although all contain warm, lush scoring, perfect craftsmanship, and an admirable overall unity. Bruch once stated that 'Melody is the soul of music' and surprisingly this is the one area in which these symphonies perhaps fail. There exist wonderful melodic passages to be sure, but these are at the price of certain lengthy stretches of busy motivic writing that while thematically related to the principal subjects, do not distinguish themselves. Yet would that all composers had this fault if their orchestration and their melodic material were as successful as that of Max Bruch! And which composer can claim that every moment in his works is worthy of our deepest attention? Would this even be desirable? This is music that relishes the sheer sound of the orchestra; these symphonies are of the warm, autumnal quality found in Beethoven's 6th and Schumann's 3rd and are perfect to accompany a long, solitary walk in nature or an evening with a loved one.

The above having been stated, the violin/orchestra works herein are, not surprisingly, full of wonderful melodic writing and can be considered extensions of his violin concerti and Scottish Fantasy. Most successful and profoundly sad is "In Memoriam" in c-sharp minor, a long, elegiac, and powerful utterance that deserves a much-needed revival. Also very beautiful is the Romanze, which was intended to be the first movement of another violin concerto, but was abandoned. Here Bruch is at his finest, outpouring long, opulent melody above beautifully supportive orchestration. Accardo plays this music well with a fine sound and appropriate passion. Although his attention to detail is perhaps not of the best violinists today, he is still to be admired for his obvious dedication to this music and I prefer a passionate, generous performance to one that is merely precise any day. Bravo.

This is an excellent set of discs and I recommend it highly. The Bruch symphonies are once again gaining a toehold in the symphonic repertoire and if you are perhaps wondering what these pieces contain, hesitate no further.

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Soulful playing from the man
Brouwer and Williams at their best
One of Williams' best recordings!

Brouwer: The Black Decameron

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Leo Brouwer: Guitar Music, Vol. 1
Brouwer: Guitar Music, Vol. 2
Steve Gray: Guitar Concerto; Richard Harvey: Concerto Antico
Brouwer: Sonata; Hika; Suite No. 2
David Russell plays 19th Century Music

ASIN: B0000062E6
Release Date: 1998-03-17

Tracks:

Concerto De Toronto (For John Williams):: Moderato, II Theme And variations
Concerto De Toronto (For John Williams):: Theme
Concerto De Toronto (For John Williams):: Variation 1
Concerto De Toronto (For John Williams):: Variation 2
Concerto De Toronto (For John Williams):: Variation 3
Concerto De Toronto (For John Williams):: Variation 4
Concerto De Toronto (For John Williams):: III, Tempo Libero. Allegro
Elogio De La Danza - Eulogy For The Dance: Lento, Obstinato
El Decameron Negro (1981): El Arpa Del Guerrero
El Decameron Negro (1981): La Huida De Los Amantes Por El Valle De Los Ecos
El Decameron Negro (1981): Balada De La Doncella Enamoradal
Hika: 'In Memoriam Toru Takemitsu' (1996)

Customer Reviews:

Soulful playing from the man.......2004-10-19

I was recommended to approach this CD with caution, as John uses his trademark "faultless and riskless" playing style to the maximum, but being a huge fan I had to explore. I was not disappointed.
The opening to Concerto Toronto is quite simply spine tingling, John's technical ability boggles the mind in what seems to be one of the hardest guitar compositions to date, and also one of the most beautiful. Brouwer's typical theme development techniques are used to great effect, and his orchestration is also very appropriate - a rare trait for a composer so dedicated to one instrument. In this first movement, I found myself rewinding and relistening many times to some of the phrases, as Williams' playing is so impeccable. The second movement, a theme and variations is also excellently presented, and especially the first variation, I'd like to hear any other guitarist play this well.
The Elogio de la Danza is also very neatly presented, if a little souless in parts, on the whole justice is done to this fine work.
El Decameron Negro promised such great things - One of Brouwers finest compositions played by a true master. However, looking beyond technical ability (which anyone would agree is here in buckets) El Arpa del Guerrero sounds as though the notes have been put into a computer and churned back out. Yes its fluid and mistakeless, but for such an estabished performer,I expected better and more original things.
His interpretation of La Huida de los Amantes por el Valle de los Ecos, however, is among the finest, if not the finest pieces of playing I have ever heard from John. The lyricism shines at every opportunity, and is strongly backed by his technique. If the gallop at the end leaves you unmoved, then see a doctor. Absolute magic.
Then the Balada de la Doncella Enmorada. This is undeniably a little rushed, and often used to show off - again its fluid and hugely impressive, but somewhat immature.(?)
The Hika is fantastic, John really brings out the agressive nature of the phrasing, and the sombre melodies - I'd like to see him do it live. He sure can play guitar.
Overall, definitely worth checking out - interpretations vary, and who am I to cuss such a legend's playing. I like this CD very much and so will you.

Brouwer and Williams at their best.......2000-02-09

Normally I do not like John Williams playing Brouwer or any other South American composer for that matter. This CD however surprised me. The music is played with, as always, technical supremacy and a lot of feeling/emotion, which I think normally lacks when he plays Brouwer. The Concerto de Toronto is great. I never knew that Brouwer composed stuff like this. The El Decameron Negro is out of this world.

One of Williams' best recordings!.......1999-11-17

In addition to the excellent premiere recording of Leo Brouwer's Concerto de Toronto (which, fortunately for Brouwer fans, includes several motifs used by Brouwer in some of his previous works), John Williams provides the listener with an outstanding rendition of the much recorded El Decameron Negro. His approach to La Huida de los Amantes por el Valle de los Ecos (The Flight of the Lovers Through the Valley of the Echoes) results in some of the most sensitive and energetic playing I have heard from Williams.

Average customer rating:

Must-have recording
Outstanding performances of important contemporary quartets
dark, rich and splendid!
New Music which Dares to make an Impact
Directly to the bottom

Musik Fur Streichinstrumente

Manufacturer: Ecm Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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György Kurtág: Signs, Games and Messages
Kurtag: Jatekok / Marta and Gyorgy Kurtag
Kafka-Fragmente Op. 24
György Ligeti Edition 1: String Quartets and Duets - Arditti String Quartet
Kaija Saariaho: Du Cristal...À la Fumée; Sept Papillons, Nymphéa

ASIN: B000024R1O
Release Date: 2000-02-01

Tracks:

Aus der Ferne III
Officium breve in memoriam Andrezervzky
Ligatura - Message to Frences-Marie (The answered unanswered question)
Quartetto per archi op.1 / I Poco agitato
' II Con moto
' III Vivacissimo; Lento
' IV Con spirito
' V Molto ostinato
' VI Adagio
Hommage ih Andr 12 Mikroludien / I
' II
' III
' IV Presto
' V Lontano, calmo, appena sentito
' VI
' VII
' VIII Con slancio
' IX Pesante, con moto / Leggiero
' X Molto agitato
' XI
' XII Leggiero, con moto, non dolce
Ligatura - Message to Frances-Marie (The answered unanswered question)

Customer Reviews:

Must-have recording.......2006-12-27

I heard the Boston Symphony play an orchestral piece of Kurtag's several years ago. I was impressed by the piece, and frankly have no idea why it took me so long to purchase this CD. There are a great many noteworthy string quartets of the last hundred years, and Kurtag's in some ways are the most unusual. While formidable technique and discipline are required to play them, the overall effect is not highly virtuosic, as you might remark about say, Bartok. The overall effect is more darkly contemplative, although there are certainly moments of great drama. Harmonically, they're quite wonderful, with much of the harmony in very low registers. The sparseness of the writing may bring Webern to mind, but the resemblance is only superficial. Kurtag speaks with his own distinct voice.
The reading by the Keller Quartet is excellent. It is both restrained and emotional. The quality of the recording is excellent, as one would expect from ECM.

Outstanding performances of important contemporary quartets.......2004-01-07

Having released several discs featuring his music, ECM have played a major role in the in the recent buzz surrounding the Hungarian composer György Kurtág. This disc of his three string quartets--all key works in the composer's oeuvre--by the outstanding Keller Quartet may well be the finest of all these recordings.

The String Quartet, opus 1, was written in 1959, when Kurtág was 33. (It is perhaps a sign of the composer's lack of conventional self-confidence that none of his previous works had merited an opus number.) Written in six movements, it is composed in a language that is very obviously derived from Bartók and Webern, though even here (unlike, say, in the earlier Viola Concerto) Kurtág is clearly his own composer. The first movement is a brief, ambivalent exposition, the second plays with vigorous ostinati and the third is almost a conventional scherzo (though with slower passages interrupting). The fourth movement is perhaps a negation of the third: it is a slow movement with vigorous outbursts fragmenting the flow; while the fifth movement mirrors the second in its ostinato writing. The slow finale takes the material of the opening but extends it to more than four times the length of the first movement.

If the String Quartet was an assured debut, the Twelve Microludes, opus 13, written in 1977 and 1978, demonstrate how much Kurtág was to grow as a composer in the next two decades. Even more miniaturised than the Quartet (its twelve movements last a mere ten minutes), it also contains a much greater variety of expression. The music includes several chorale-like movements and some that play with ostinati as in the Quartet, but the heart of the work is surely the fifth movement, whose haunting folk-like melody is heard as from afar, garlanded by fragmentary motifs on the other instruments.

Officium breve, opus 28, is an instrumental requiem for the Hungarian composer Andre Szervánszky, written in 1988 and 1989. The work is in fifteen movements--which play without a break--and exhibits something of a collage form. The two linchpins of the work are an incomplete quotation from Szervánszky's Serenade for Strings and the remarkable canon that ends Webern's Second Cantata (a transcription for string quartet of which is the tenth movement of the quartet). Two movements, the third and the twelfth, both based on the Szervánszky quote, are transcribed directly from Szervánszky homages in the piano collection Játékok. The work ends with ferociously dissonant varations on the Szervánszky quote that lead directly into the final movement, which is nothing more than that quote itself. This luminously tonal, Romantic music provides a sudden peripeteia, and sheds unexpected new light on what had come before.

The disc also includes two miniatures. Aus der Ferne III, a homage to Paul Sacher on his 90th birthday, has appeared in a number of versions (two violins, piano four-hands) before this string quartet version. The Answered Unanswered Question (Homage-Message à Frances-Marie) is heard twice on this disc. Commemorating Frances-Marie Uitti and her bizarre double-bowing cello technique, this brief work, for two violins, two cellos and celesta, features the composer playing the celesta part.

Both Officium breve and the Twelve Microludes strike me as amongst the finest of post-war quartets, and they deserve the strongest possible advocacy. Happily, the playing of the Keller Quartet is quite outstanding, and gets to the heart of the music in a way that the rival version from the Arditti Quartet cannot match. Even with the rather short (less than 50 minutes) playing time, this is an essential recording for anyone interested in postwar music.

dark, rich and splendid!.......2001-07-28

This is an exquisite recording of some of the best in modern music. The three major pieces are Kurtag's String Quartet (op. 1) of 1959, the second quartet, 12 Microludes (op. 13), of 1977-78, and the third quartet, Officium Breve (op. 28) of 1988-89. Three shorter pieces are included as well, including two versions of Ligatura, with Kurtag on celesta. Kurtag clearly fuses Webern and Bartok, producing dark, rich music that is never exhausted through repeated listening.

How does this 1996 KQ/ECM recording compare to the 1990 recording by the Arditti Quartet of Kurtag's three string quartets on Montaigne, supervised by Kurtag? (see my review) The KQ takes the tempos slightly slower, and this produces a suitably dramatic effect. The tempo difference is likely one chief cause of the difference in affect -- the AQ sounds more anguished overall, whereas the KQ is slightly more restrained, more stoic. Of course the KQ is treated to Manfred Eicher's patented production, with its noticeable resonance, and this produces a darker tone, it seems. The Montaigne production of the AQ is more natural, with a clean, clear surface. The KQ adds three short Kurtag pieces for an all-Kurtag set, while the AQ adds Lutoslawski's 25-minute quartet (his only one), and the 10-minute Second Quartet by Gubaidulina. ECM's graphics and packaging are stunning, as usual, with black-and-white photography.

It is fascinating to hear the alternative interpretations, and Kurtag's works certainly warrant more! But if you hear only one, the Keller Quartet's recording is outstanding.

New Music which Dares to make an Impact.......2001-01-11

As a member of a professional string quartet, I'm always on the lookout for new repertoire for my group to perform. I'd noticed that several Kurtag pieces had been performed (by the Emerson and Orion quartets, most recently) and wanted to see what all the buzz was about. Turns out, it was worth the purchase of this fine CD. I've always been a fan of Webern and Ligeti, and Kurtag seems to me to embody the best of these two composers' styles, while remaining very much his own distinct musical personality. The Keller Quartet plays these pieces with great virtuosity, but not at the expense of passion and what I can only describe as a "avant garde bel canto". If you have any interest in new music, and especially new music which is extraordinary, look no further than this disc.

Directly to the bottom.......2000-08-17

The words expressed by the Spanish fan music (in Barcelona) resume the feelings Kurtag evokes.

The intensity of the emotions provoked by Kurtag's music on me are also based on the contrast with my Mediterranean personality and values, what demonstrates the inmense power of music: there are no nations, no races, no room to disagreement when listening to the language of the bottom.

Music Info:

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Recommended Music:

Gold Collection: Golden Oldies

Bridges to Japan

Fall of the Avenue [Import]

You Come To Me

Endings

Exhale Blue

Celtic Moods: Portraits

Freaked Out & Small [Original recording remastered]

From the Archives 2

Olga Kern: 11th Van Cliburn Int'l Piano Competition 1

Byrd Lore

Encontro Em Lisboa (In Concert in Lisbon) [Live]

Con Tambora

Pavarotti & Friends: For Cambodia and Tibet

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